1st Christmas!

We ended up having a wonderful Christmas with family and are very blessed...and spoiled!

Merry Christmas from the Andreae's!

We had to modify our original plans a bit because Natalie had a fever from Wednesday (the 21st) until Saturday night (Christmas Eve). The only way we could get her fever to stay down was to give her Triaminic, then an hour later check her temperature (which she still had) and give her Children's Motrin. We also started her on the Amoxicillin the doctor prescribed for her on Thursday night. She was miserable and didn't sleep or eat well at all. It didn't help that her nose was running like crazy and she was so stuffed up so even if she did want her bottle, she couldn't breathe to drink it. It was a long several days for me, I had a couple of breakdowns, but I was so grateful for my Mom's help who got up with me every 2 hours and sometimes took care of her by herself (or with my dad's help, too). I was completely exhausted!  Bobby slept good through all the nights but the first night, which he said I should have woken him up, but there were already enough people up trying to take care of our poor baby.

On Friday, we headed up north for my Dad's extended family Christmas gathering, but we had decided to keep Natalie away from the large crowd. So, Bobby dropped me off and took Natalie over to his parents' house, then brought her back over to my parents' (since that is where we were staying) later in the evening to put her to bed. We felt really bad that no one from my Dad's side got to see her, but we wanted to do what we thought would be best for her and all of them. No point on getting everyone else sick as well!

From that Christmas, Natalie got a cute pink fleece winter hat, a 'Wow I'm a Big Sister' baseball cap, and a Big Sister keepsake book from her Great Grandma and Grandpa Barry. We do a 'Dirty Santa' gift exchange with any family that wants to participate and Bobby ended up with a Swiss Army knife and I got a cookie mix with an iTunes giftcard.

On Saturday, Christmas Eve, Natalie was still running a fever but was going longer periods without one. We decided not to take her to the Christmas Eve service at church, so Bobby stayed home with her (I think mainly so he could watch the Cowboys game since it started around the same time), then my parents, aunt and her boyfriend, my sister and Matt, and my mom's friend, Nan, all were over for our annual fondue dinner. We had a good time and Natalie slept through most of the dinner and got up just in time for gifts. Natalie got a wooden animal puzzle that makes animal noises that she really enjoyed, as well as a couple sleepers. I got Zumba 2 for the Wii (I ended up with 3 of them by the end of all our gatherings...haha...I think that is a hint) and Bobby got a Lowe's giftcard. We also each got an ornament. We had a good time and Natalie was playful with her puzzle. She slept a tad bit better that night, but was still up often.

Poor sick baby girl

Bobby and Amanda playing Family Feud

Ready for bed

Playing with her new puzzle

Mommy and Daddy helping open presents

Usually, Christmas morning, I am the first one up, waking everyone up to see what Santa brought, but not this year. I was so exhausted, I think I could have slept for days and days!  Natalie was the first one up, but woke up in a good mood and had NO fever. This was the start to our fever-free days!  You could tell she still wasn't 100%, but no fever and she was a little more playful was good for us! Merry Christmas to all of us!

Santa came!

Christmas morning!

Her AWESOME new toybox my parents made!

Love the letters Aunt Amanda painted!

Sleepy baby

...and she's out!

Best present of 2011!!!!

Dada helping open presents

Close up of the letters Aunt Amanda painted on Natalie's new toy box

We had the presents already separated out and went around one at a time opening gifts with Bobby, my parents, and Matt & Amanda. Natalie got all kinds of neat things...cute learning toys from Amanda and Matt (my favorite was a LeapFrog dog named Violet that can be programmed to say Natalie's name and her favorite things) and my parents made an awesome toy box for Natalie, while Amanda painted her name on it. It is perfect and amazing! Natalie will love it for years and years to come!  Bobby and I got all kinds of good things too, including a glider and freestanding tall heater for our porch.

Bobby's extended family Christmas is always Christmas afternoon and we had decided to attempt to take Natalie, but she decided to take a super long nap (much needed 3.5 hour nap), so I stayed at my parents while Bobby went to his until she woke up and wanted to make sure she wasn't running a fever. Once she got up, still no fever, so I got her ready to go and we headed over. We didn't want her passed around to tons of people, so it kind of worked out that I brought her at the start of the 'Dirty Santa' gift exchange and toward the end of the party. She was okay for most of the gathering while we were there, but got pretty fussy toward the end, so I headed back home to my parents after about 3 hours there.

On Monday (day after Christmas), we got together with Bobby's immediate family for gifts. Natalie was in much better spirits this day, which I was so thankful for!  She got a ton of goodies...one spoiled little girl. The highlights for her was a Fisher-Price house/door...very interactive and a rocking horse. Bobby got a very large box that contained a floor jack/creeper and I got a floor cleaner. By the looks of all our presents, we thought we may need a UHaul just to get everything back down to Terre Haute. I don't know what we will do next year with 2 kids because our car was packed! Luckily, my parents were headed down to Tennessee, so we were able to get Amanda and Matt's things delivered to Indy, rearrange vehicles to get everything headed to Terre Haute down there as well.

Mommy helping open a present

Spoiled much?!

A new laptop

I guess she wants some summer sausage!